EFFORTS of the British American Tobacco Malaysia Bhd (BAT Malaysia) to highlight and address the severity of tobacco’s black market received regional recognition as the company bagged a Silver trophy for the Best Corporate Affairs Strategy at the PR Awards 2020.
BAT Malaysia’s submission of the Sampai Bila campaign was aimed to highlight the economic impact of an often-ignored topic of the tobacco black market and its consequences to the country and its people.
It highlighted that the problem not only affect legal companies, but it also fosters crime and corruption while risking the jobs of retailers.
Through British American Tobacco Group, Oxford Economics was commissioned to publish a report that showed the tobacco black market causes Malaysia to lose about RM5 bil annually on lost taxes.
“For too long, the tobacco black market had been ignored, but Malaysians need to know the shocking fact that the country was, at one time, the No. 1 country for illegal tobacco,” said BAT Malaysia managing director Jonathan Reed.
“For BAT Malaysia, the Sampai Bila campaign is just the start of us laying the groundwork in our efforts to highlight that the issue is serious and has far-reaching consequences beyond the tobacco industry.
“The campaign gave us a foundation to continue fighting and raising awareness regarding the tobacco black market issue,” he added. – Dec 10, 2020
